O.Henry is describing first meeting of a guy and a gal.

"Instantly the doom of each was sealed.
The unqualified desire of a man to buy clothes and build fires for a woman for a whole lifetime at first sight of her is not uncommon among that humble portion of humanity that does not care for Bradstreet or coats-of-arms or Shaw's plays. Love at first sight has occurred a time or two in high life; but, as a rule, the extempore mania is to be found among unsophisticated cratures such as the dove, the blue-tailed dingbat, and the ten-dollar-a-week clerk. Poets, subscribers to all fiction magazines, and schatchens, take notice. "

Definition: \Schat"chen\, n. [Yiddish, fr. NHeb. shadkh[=a]n, fr.
sh[=a]dakh to bring about a marriage, orig., to persuade.]
A person whose business is marriage brokage; a marriage
broker, esp. among certain Jews.